MOZART
Piano Concertos No 20 K466 & No 24 491
Clara Haskil with Orchestre
des Concerts Lamoureux Igor Markevitch
Philips 464 718-2 [60
mins]
Crotchet
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It is good to have Clara Haskil's performances of the D minor &
C minor concertos back in circulation in the Philips 50
collection. They date from 1960 and she met her accidental
death a month later. It is an enduring memory to have heard this frail elderly
woman at the BBC's Maida Vale Studios, her playing, robust, immensely subtle
and delicate too. Her posture was bowed because of spinal disease and she
later had to cope also with a tumour on the optic nerve. She had suffered
appalling ill health, yet remained indomitable in pursuing a career which
had made her one of the best-loved pianists of her time.
These are honest, scrupulous accounts, balancing clarity with a feeling for
form and expression. The sound is satisfactory in this re-mastered CD and
whilst it is unlikely to be a first choice for these popular concertos, Haskil's
interpretations are well worth having.
Peter Grahame Woolf
